Talented Flint students experience university style tutorials with sustainability expert

A group of talented students from a Flintshire high school gained an insight into university learning when they took part in a series of online tutorials with a PhD student from Germany.

Sixteen Flint High School more able and talented (MAT) students from years 9 and 10, who are within the top 5% of learners, were selected to participate in the Seren Award event, accessing three online tutorial sessions over three days with Sami Asad, a PhD student from Freie University Berlin, Germany.

Seren is a collaborative initiative between the Welsh Government, schools, colleges, leading universities, Seren Graduates, local authorities and third sector organisations to provide extensive national and regional study and enrichment activities for year 8 to 13 learners from state schools and further education colleges across Wales.

The aim is to support students to broaden their horizons, develop a passion for their chosen field of study, and achieve their goals.

The Seren Award is an online tutoring programme delivered to the most able learners across Wales.

It is designed to help the transition into Key Stage 5 study and enable students to develop both university and subject specific knowledge, as well as academic skills, to support their university applications and prepare them for future university level study.

During the interactive tutorials, Sami spoke to students about his experiences of studying wildlife and tropical forests around the world, helping students to gain a deeper appreciation of tropical forests and sustainability.

Following on from the tutorials, students have been working on a 1000-1500 word assignment that must be submitted online by 23rd December.  

Sami has been on hand to support students with any questions prior to submission, and will grade each assignment against university standards, awarding a university grade, i.e. a 1st, 2:1, etc.

Sami explains more about the purpose of his tutorials: “As part of the Seren Award, the students need to try and answer the big question “how can tropical forests be managed sustainably”.

Over the course of the tutorials, students have learnt some of the fundamentals of tropical forest ecology, ecosystems services and commercial forest use.

Using this subject knowledge and their own research, the students will develop a sustainable management plan for a patch of forest based on a real-world case study.

In this plan, students will justify their decisions for how to manage this forest for both the conservation of biodiversity/ecosystem services, and income generation.”

The response from students to this opportunity has been very positive.

One student said: “I found the course really interesting, I never knew how many different options were available to study at university.”

“This has opened my eyes more and helped me think about university study in the future”.

Another commented: “It was lovely to meet Sami and hear about his experiences. I enjoyed the tutorial sessions; they helped me to see how we are connected to tropical forests – more than I ever thought”.

Simon Goodall, deputy headteacher, arranged for the Seren Award event to take place.  

He said: “I am extremely proud of how our students approached the challenge of thinking like a degree level student.

“I hope that the experience supports each student to hold the highest of aspirations for themselves and helps them to learn to excel.”

“We can see how beneficial and successful interactive sessions such as these are for our students and, on the back of Sami’s tutorials, I am working with our core subjects of English, Maths and Science to hold more masterclass sessions in the future.”  

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